The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [124]
“I love outdoor work.” Misty stepped away from Morgan and headed to the side of the house to check their progress. “I used to work with my father’s gardeners when I was younger. It’s hot work, especially on a day like today. But I always preferred that to being cooped up inside.”
Morgan could just picture her as a little girl, hanging out with the hired help because her daddy ignored her and she had nothing better to do. It made his stomach cramp.
Howard nodded. “Know what you mean. Fresh air is good for you. I used to farm in my younger days. There’s nothing like it.”
She went around the corner of the house, Howard and Jesse trailing her like she was the Pied Piper. She kept chatting and they continued to hang on her every word.
Morgan was left alone with his disgruntled feelings. Odds were, he told himself, Misty had been as endearing as a wide-eyed child as she was now. The gardeners had probably loved having her underfoot. He shook his head. Gardeners, for crying out loud.
She made one simple statement about her youth and he got melancholy. It wasn’t to be borne.
He heard Jesse’s cackling laugh from way out back and frowned. They’d only just met her and she already had them mesmerized. He considered waiting until they came back, then changed his mind. He unlocked the front door, which only he and the deputy used, closed and locked it, then went through the converted house to the back. In what used to be the dining room, a space now housing all his file cabinets, he stared out the large picture window.
He could see Misty standing just outside the line of displaced weeds and dirt, her hands on her rounded hips as she conversed with the men. Her dark shiny hair glinted in the sunlight, and her bare shoulders and thighs appeared sleek. She looked over the still-packaged bushes while the two old codgers looked her over, eyeing the long expanse of her legs. Morgan felt like growling.
He knew he was in a hell of a predicament when two elders made him jealous. What had happened to his acclaimed control?
He went to the soda machine in the hallway outside his office and fed in quarters. Seconds later he stepped into the yard with four icy cold cans numbing his fingers. Jesse and Howard accepted theirs with relish, popping the tops and guzzling the cola. Though he’d told the old men time and again to bring a cooler with drinks, they never remembered to do it.
Misty was more restrained, using the edge of her shorts to clean the top of the can then opening it cautiously and sipping. It was so hot and humid outside that the little wisps of her hair escaping her topknot had begun to curl around her face.
She squinted against the sun, wrinkling her small nose, and smiled at him. “The bushes will look great once they’re in. It’ll make the yard looked bigger, too, without the tall weeds breaking up the length.”
Morgan nodded, content just to look at her and drink his soda and enjoy the feel of the sunshine.
He loved the old farmhouse—and had since the moment he’d been elected and moved his things into the desk. He forced his gaze away from her and surveyed the back porch. “She’s a grand old lady, isn’t she?”
“She’s beautiful.” Misty, too, looked at the porch with the turned rails and ornate trim. “You don’t see that kind of detail very often any more.”
“It’s solid.” Morgan finished off his cola, then crushed the can in his fist. “This house is partly what inspired me to build my own home. I was forever doing improvements to the station and finally decided I needed my own place to work on. But even with my house almost complete, I still love it here.”
“Somehow, I think it suits you. Especially because you’re in charge.”
“It does,” he agreed, ignoring her teasing tone. “You want to see inside where you’ll be working?”
“Sure.” She turned to the men and smiled. “Howard, Jesse, it was nice meeting you.”
They each nodded, ridiculous smiles on their faces. Morgan could only shake his head in wonder. Was no man immune? As they walked through the back door, he saw her smile and raised